Missourians should vote on a gas tax hike. Then lawmakers should do what voters say
We disagree with Americans for Prosperity-Missouri on just about every issue. The quasi-libertarian advocacy group is wrong about tax policy, spending, health insurance and a long list of other issues.
Yet we don’t think Missourians should fight AFP-Missouri’s effort to put a statewide gas tax increase on the ballot in 2022.
The legislature approved the tax hike in the final days of the session. If Gov. Mike Parson signs the bill, as expected, Missouri gas taxes would go up 2.5 cents per year, starting in October, for 5 years — reaching 12.5 cents a gallon in 2025.
The long-delayed and much-needed tax would raise around $500 million annually for state and local road and bridge repair.
AFP-Missouri dislikes taxes with the heat of 1,000 suns, and ignores complaints about potholes and collapsing bridges. It filed paperwork this week with the secretary of state, seeking petition signatures to force a vote on the tax hike.
We support the gas tax increase. Missouri currently has one of the lowest gas tax levies in the nation, 17 cents a gallon, and its roads and bridges are a disaster as a result. It’s particularly a problem in rural areas.
“I believe it is crucial we do everything we can to improve our state’s transportation infrastructure,” state Sen. David Schatz, a Republican, said this spring. A gradual increase in the levy makes sense in every way.
But there’s another fundamental issue at stake here: the right of Missourians to reject laws with which they disagree. That right is embedded in the Missouri Constitution, and survived this year’s session intact, despite the efforts of antidemocratic Republicans, who detest voters.
A statewide vote on raising the gas tax will clarify the public’s desire to pay for road improvements.
AFP-Missouri is fully within its rights to gather signatures to put the measure on the ballot. The group will need roughly 110,000 valid signatures, give or take, from six of the state’s eight congressional districts in order to put the bill to a vote.
The timetable is short. The petitions have to be filed around the end of August. There’s always a chance state officials will try to manipulate the calendar, as they did two years ago when opponents of an abortion law sought a statewide referendum.
Those opponents were cheated out of their right to vote. That shouldn’t happen, ever.
There’s another reason we don’t oppose a vote on the gas tax. Putting the plan on the ballot would teach AFP-Missouri, and all of us, an important lesson about hypocrisy.
Last August, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved expanding Medicaid in the state. It was the right thing to do: We endorsed a petition and a Medicaid expansion vote years before it actually happened.
AFP? Not so much. In fact, AFP has bitterly opposed Medicaid expansion at almost every opportunity, even filing a lawsuit against the initiative petition. Let’s get this straight: The people have a right to vote on gas taxes, but on health care they should shut up and go home?
Voters can see through the doublespeak. They want their voices heard, whether it’s Medicaid expansion or a gas tax.
It’s important to be consistent. We’ve endorsed initiatives and referendums on issues we support and oppose, because we think the public’s voice should always be heard. And unlike the legislature, we believe in the rule of law.
We also trust voters’ decisions, which is more than you can say for the people who represent them, or for Americans for Prosperity.
